Auto Terra II and Super
The Auto Terra II and Super are Japanese 35mm cameras with a leaf shutter, a coupled rangefinder and a spring motor device, made by Teraoka Seikōsho in the second half of the 1950s. They were preceded by the folding Auto Terra, treated in a separate article. General description All the Auto Terra II and Super share the same body with smooth edges. The viewfinder and rangefinder are integrated into the top housing and share a common eyepiece. The viewfinder is of the bright-frame type and has 1.0× magnification, 1.0× magnification: advertisement for the Auto Terra II reproduced in , p.256. and the second image window is diamond-shaped. The smooth top plate has a name engraving, an accessory shoe and an exposure counter window, and it has a small film reminder disc on the back. The main release is at the front of the body. Next to it is a thread for a cable release and a selector with three positions: D'' for double exposure, ''A for automatic advance and R'' for rewind. The body has strap lugs on both sides. The back is hinged to the right. The bottom plate has a tripod thread at the right end, and the motor winding key and rewind crank at the other end. From back to front, the lens barrel has a focusing ring with focus tab and depth-of-field indications, a ring and an aperture ring. The Auto Terra II series Common features The Auto Terra II models have a separate lever on the lens barrel, actuated by the photographer's left hand, which both releases the spring-driven advance and cocks the shutter. Full loading of the spring motor allows for twelve exposures. , p.390, Shirai, p.124. When the camera is operated fast enough, these twelve exposures can be taken in four seconds. Shirai, p.124. Other common features of the Auto Terra II compared with the later Auto Terra Super are the separate windows for the viewfinder and rangefinder, the flush accessory shoe, the cable release thread placed under the main release and the separate compartments in the bottom plate for the spring loading key and rewind crank. The Auto Terra II The original '''Auto Terra II' has automatical parallax correction in the viewfinder. It has a round exposure counter window at the top, and a silver-coloured three-position selector under the main release. The lens barrel has a mixed black and chrome finish, and the advance release, focus tab and speed selector tab are light-coloured. The name is engraved on the top plate as AUTO Terra II and in front of the lens barrel as AUTO TERRA II. The shutter is a Seikosha-MX (B, 1–500). The lens is a Plover 44/2.8, certainly the same as on the previous Auto Terra. The Auto Terra II was featured in Japanese magazines from December 1956 and advertised from that month to October 1957. , p.390. Despite this long advertising period, it is not certain if the camera was actually sold, and no surviving example is known. The Auto Tera IIB The Auto Tera IIB mainly differs by the absence of the parallax correction feature. It has a crescent-shaped exposure counter window at the top. The lens barrel is all chrome, with black speed selector tab. A presumably early example has a black advance release with a rounded shape, a black three-position advance selector and an all black lens rim. Example pictured in , item 3787. A presumably late one has a silver advance release with a triangular shape, a small silver knob replacing the advance selector and a lens rim with an external silver finish. Example pictured in Shirai, p.125. The shutter and lens are the same as on the Auto Terra II. The name is engraved on the top plate as AUTO Tera IIB and in front of the lens barrel as AUTO TERA IIB, with a single 'R'. The logos in the advertisements also have the spelling "Tera". The company changed its mind again after some time, and all subsequent models have "Terra". The Auto Tera IIB was announced in December 1957, January and February 1958 issues of Japanese magazines, and it was advertised from November 1957 to October 1958. , pp.390–1. Bibliography * Items 1362–6. * Hattori Yutaka (服部豊). "Supuringu mōtā makiage no 35mm LS kamera: Ōto Tera Sūpā" (スプリングモーター巻き上げの35mmLSカメラ:オートテラスーパー, A 35mm leaf-shutter camera with spring motor advance: the Auto Terra Super). P.121. * P.91. * P.917. * Shirai Tatsuo (白井達男). "Auto Terra I" (オートテラⅠ型). Pp.117–26 of Maboroshi no kamera o otte (幻のカメラを追って, Pursuing phantom cameras). Gendai Kamera Shinsho (現代カメラ新書). Tokyo: Asahi Sonorama, 1982. ISBN 4-257-08077-9. (First published in Kamera Rebyū / Camera Review. no.13, September 1980.) * Items 3787–92. Links In Japanese: * Auto Terra Super in the AJCC website * Auto Terra Super in a page of other cameras of the Topcon Club website * Auto Terra Super in a page of wanted cameras in the je2luz camera site * Optika Auto 35 among other cameras with Zunow lens at Nekosan's website Category: Japanese 35mm rangefinder Category: Spring motor Category: A Terra, Auto